Amtrak's Pennsylvanian exits Allegheny Tunnel at Gallitzin, Pennsylvania, April 25, 2009. The train is bound for Pittsburgh from Philadelphia. Regular Amtrak riders from coast to coast have come to expect delays, and to be sure, many trains almost never run on time. (Curtis Tate, McClatchy-Tribune)

U.S. travelers have grown accustomed to long airport security lines, delayed and crowded flights, and congested roadways.

It should come as little surprise to anyone, then, to encounter similar hassles on America's long-neglected passenger railroad, Amtrak.

In an April 25 travel story, Washington Post reporters Andrea Sachs and Nancy Trejos described the plight of two chronically late trains to Washington -- one from Boston, the other from Charlotte, N.C.

Regular Amtrak riders from coast to coast have come to expect delays, and to be sure, many trains almost never run on time.

However, the Post article only examined two schedules out of hundreds and only in one sliver of the country, giving readers an incomplete rendering of Amtrak's problems and their underlying causes.

For the past 50 years, the United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on highways, and most agree that this investment gave the economy a critical boost and made it possible for Sun Belt cities such as Atlanta, Houston, Dallas and Phoenix to flourish.

Until the mid-20th century, passenger trains were the crown jewels of American travel. Hollywood celebrities, before they switched to less glamorous jets, used the ultimate chauffeurs, the 20th Century Limited between New York and Chicago and the Super Chief between Chicago and Los Angeles to bridge their bi-coastal social calendars. (In fact, "Chiefing" became another word for cross-country travel. Somehow, "Delta-ing" just doesn't sound the same.)

These trains were luxury cruise ships on steel wheels. You could have your hair cut or shoes shined, you could enjoy cocktails and live music, or fine dining on white tablecloths with real china and silver. By the time you retired to your sleeping compartment, your bed already would be made for you by an attendant.

The public ultimately abandoned passenger trains for automobiles and airplanes, and most private railroad companies dropped passenger service in 1971, leaving what remained to Amtrak. Though ridership has grown ever since, government subsidies, amounting to a fraction of federal highway spending, haven't kept pace with demand.

The neglect shows itself in many forms: equipment shortages and breakdowns, lackluster food service and spotty on-time performance. The Washington Post reporters got that part right: It's little wonder the romance is gone.

The Charlotte-Washington Carolinian, cited as an example by the reporters, is often delayed by freight trains. The reasons are simple: In the 1980s, freight hauler CSX abandoned the direct route Amtrak used between Richmond and Raleigh. This forced passenger trains onto a slower route between the capitals of Virginia and North Carolina.

It also forced them to share space with freight trains on the primary CSX freight route along the East Coast. Until the 1960s, this line was mostly double track, but ironically, the decline of passenger trains resulted in the removal of much of the second track. The solution to this problem may involve reversing one or both of these earlier capacity reductions: Restore the direct link between the two cities or rebuild the second track on the other route.

The Post article also bemoaned the limitations of Amtrak's busiest route: The Northeast Corridor, which connects Washington to New York and Boston.

Amtrak's flagship train, the Acela, the closest thing we have in the U.S. to fast trains in Europe or Asia, must twist its way at excruciatingly slow speeds through a series of tunnels in Baltimore that date back to the 1870s. It also must negotiate century-old bridges and tunnels between Newark and New York, and a circuitous coastline path between New Haven, Conn., and Providence, R.I. In short, there are few places where it can operate at its maximum speed of 150 mph.

The Northeast Corridor needs tens of billions of dollars to bring it up to modern standards. Some stretches were upgraded in the past decade, but most of it -- the overhead electrical supply and train control system -- dates back 75 years. The Pennsylvania Railroad, a private company, made that investment, not the U.S. government.

However, Uncle Sam was a huge beneficiary of this project -- in World War II, this precursor to multilane highways carried a staggering volume of troops, equipment and raw materials by the trainload -- the Allies couldn't have won without it. Now under Amtrak's ownership and with freight traffic largely shifted to other routes, the Northeast Corridor is a dedicated passenger conveyor belt that's due for its biggest overhaul since the Great Depression.